Review by Riders republic. Game for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Google Stadia, the video game was released on 28/10/2021
Announced in 2020 and after several open betas, republic riders has officially landed on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and old gen. The production of Ubisoft annecy takes what is good done with steep and evolves it, giving it a bit of healthy madness by offering the community a series of crazy extreme competitions. Thanks to an immense open world adventure to be experienced alone or in company, will Ubisoft Annecy have succeeded in involving and entertaining us?
Find out with our review.
After a first start, you immediately realize that Riders Republic is a cauldron of things taken here and there, all presented in a new light.; if the game base is evident that it is that of Steep, it is immediately evident that the game structure recalls a lot what was seen in The Crew 2, as well as the gameplay that recovers with both hands an old glory known to most, namely SSX.
Riders Republic can be a relaxing adventure but also so crazy to be able to give us an unprecedented gaming experience, a production that does not lose its own identity, expertly set up by Ubisoft Annecy who wants to offer its community more than just an experience game but a real social platform that will allow you to live a unique experience of its kind.
Riders Republic offers an immense open world that expertly unites seven national parks all joined together allowing the community to go from Sequoia Park in the Sierra Nevada to the Grand Canyon, passing through the Yellowstone park and crossing the Mammoth Mountain. Each place is made with maniacal care and wisely combined with the surrounding biome, a rich world in which you can challenge yourself in a myriad of events divided as follows:
- Ski / Snowboard "downhill and acrobatics"
- Wingsuit / Rocket Suit
- Mountain bike "downhill and stunts"
As you can see, each discipline offers two different sports, on the whole they are speed or skill competitions, the latter based on tricks; although at first glance it may seem that the production does not offer much variety, just overcome the long tutorial phase and immerse yourself in one of the disciplines available to understand how different the sports offered by Ubisoft Annecy are.
Finally, each discipline presents extra activities such as events that fish out with both hands at the Red Bull sponsored competitions and the X Games, crazy races that will not stop getting you some good laughs. The entire adventure can be experienced in single player, in co-op with a friend or take advantage of the entire community that populates the production thanks to the numerous multiplayer challenges which in turn are divided into freestyle events, classic races, mass events up to 64 players and a PvP mode.
Having ascertained that the Riders Republic storyline is a pretext to stage chaos and madness, in our long sessions we have never perceived repetitiveness, indeed, after numerous ruinous falls and daring races, the exploration of the immense open world has always been satisfying thanks to the countless challenges placed in every point of the map and each with its own challenge rate.
In Riders we have always been involved in something perhaps too much, but the numerous activities are so well diversified and connected to each other that Riders Republic can create addiction especially thanks to good gameplay able to make everything so simple and functional but at the same time in able to satisfy the player thanks to solid physics.
After some tests during the beta, the main concern was given by the management of the various disciplines but, after long sessions in the company of the Ubisoft title, we can with certainty tell you that Riders Republic is the example as each discipline present is proposed in a maniacal way, characterized deeply and diversified thanks to unique mechanics. Riding a mountain bike downhill and going downhill at full speed with a snowboard means that the sensation transmitted to the pad in the hand is completely different. The entire structure has an arcade base and not at all simulative but the depth of every action performed within Riders is supported by a realistic physics and surprising reactivity both during the descents and in the tricks.
Among the various disciplines less successful under the structural aspect due to the lack of depth we find the races in wingsuit, undermined by controls that are not always reactive and by a poor structural care but on the other hand able to give excellent landscape views. Another defect found during our sessions is the bad management of the controls which is not always intuitive; Riders Republic allows you to choose between two different game modes: Racer and Trickster, whichever mode you choose, you will end up with a problem to solve.
During the Racer mode the player can take advantage of a free camera that can be maneuvered with the right stick, while the stunts are all managed with the various keys and sometimes it is cumbersome to perform them; those who prefer the Trickster mode will have the possibility to perform tricks freely thanks to the right stick, but the camera will be blocked by sacrificing the game view. Despite these small flaws, the Ubisoft Annecy production on the technical side performs very well despite all the limitations of the cross-gen nature of the production.
The graphic rendering is superior to what was seen in Far Cry 6, but at the same time given the nature of the cross-gen & only-online title during the descents it is easy to notice textures that load with a clear delay, an annoying and invasive pop-up and a slight albeit almost imperceptible drop in frames in some circumstances. Net of these small problems, the graphic rendering of the landscapes is surprising: you go from arid lands to snowy peaks reproduced in a masterly way and the transition of the various uploads as regards the PlayStation 5 version we tested is almost immediate.
Riders Republic has managed to entertain us and have fun for several hours through a proposal of various disciplines and various activities to be carried out in the immense open world. Thanks to its cheeky and above all light style, the production of Ubisoft Annecy can be defined as an immense social platform where everything is possible. Although the production is not without defects, Riders Republic is a title recommended for those who want to spend hours of pure fun with friends or live a crazy adventure thanks to a never banal arcade gameplay, supported by excellent physics.
► Riders Republic is a racing-Simulation-Sport game developed and published by Ubisoft for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Google Stadia, the video game was released on 28/10/2021
